Editing Modern pentathlon (section)

=== Creation ===
Most sources state that the creator of the modern pentathlon was Baron [[Pierre de Coubertin]], the founder of the [[Olympic Games|modern Olympic Games]].<ref name="nyt">{{cite news |last=Branch |first=John |date=November 26, 2008 |title=Modern Pentathlon Gets a Little Less Penta |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/sports/olympics/27pentathlon.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=%22John%20Branch%22&st=cse |access-date=2008-11-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090310001320/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/sports/olympics/27pentathlon.html |archive-date=2009-03-10}}</ref><ref name="guard2021" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=2021-06-22 |title=ON-Modern pentathlon at the Tokyo Olympics |language=en |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/on-modern-pentathlon-tokyo-olympics-2021-06-22/ |access-date=2022-05-05}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Helfers |first=Edward |date=2012-08-09 |title=The Glorious Irrelevance of Modern Pentathlon |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/08/the-glorious-irrelevance-of-modern-pentathlon/260899/ |access-date=2022-05-05 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref> One alternative view is provided by researcher Sandra Heck, who concluded that [[Viktor Balck]], the President of the Organizing Committee for the 1912 Games, made use of the long tradition of Swedish military multi-sports events to create the modern pentathlon.<ref name=heck2013>{{cite book|first=Sandra|last=Heck|title= Von Spielenden Soldaten und kämpfenden Athleten. Die Genese des Modernen Fünfkampfes| publisher=V & R Unipress| location=Göttingen|year= 2013| isbn= 978-3-8471-0201-4}}</ref>

The name derives from the Greek πένταθλον (''péntathlon'') "contest of five [events]".<ref name="nyt" /> The addition of ''modern'' to the name distinguishes it from the [[Ancient Olympic pentathlon|original pentathlon]] of the [[ancient Olympic Games]], which consisted of the [[Stadion (running race)|''stadion'' foot race]], [[wrestling]], [[long jump]], [[javelin throw|javelin]], and [[discus throw|discus]]. The location of the first Olympic Games was Olympia in 708 BCE.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=Josephine |title=Olympics. |publisher=Salem Press Encyclopedia |year=2023}}</ref> As the events of the ancient pentathlon were modelled on the skills of the ideal soldier to defend a fortification of that time, Coubertin created the contest to simulate the experience of a 19th-century [[cavalry]] soldier behind enemy lines: he must ride an unfamiliar horse, fight enemies with pistol and sword, swim, and run to return to his own soldiers.<ref name="nyt" />